The St. Louis cut is trimmed of this cartilage-laden portion, as well as some excess flap-meat at the end of the rack. The end result is a rack of ribs that is more uniform in shape, smaller, and easier to eat—and that’s why I find it so much more desirable than standard spareribs.
So hopefully I’ve convinced you it’s worth trimming your spareribs, but if not, maybe once you see how easy it is, you’ll be converted. As I mentioned, it just takes two simple cuts.
The first of the two is removing the flap of meat at the end of the rack. To do this, look at the narrower end of the rack and locate the last, shortest bone. There’s usually a portion of meat attached to that bone that’s loose and will end up overcooking if not trimmed off. So to remove that, make a vertical cut parallel to, and about 1/2-inch away from, that last bone.
